kevinpaulscarrott

Posted 02 July 2009 - 08:36 AM

It doesn’t exactly jump out from the page and attack the eye, but then it’s not supposed to!

This palette has been developed as a backdrop for a variety of maps for the city of Stavanger in Norway. This presentation has been stripped of most of the foreground material, there are just a few symbols remaining to illustrate composition and purpose.

kevinpaulscarrott

Posted 03 July 2009 - 08:11 AM

Refreshing colors - I will definitely bookmark this for use sometime in the future and will site it. I like how the labels and icons pop out of the background - which I think was your intent, right?

Hi Gretchen and thanks for your feedback,

Yes you’re right. Slightly diffuse background and a stand-out foreground. Many of the maps that are designed with this backdrop palette are for festivals and sporting events. Major structures and points of interest are secondary, and are mostly there for orientation purposes. Quick and easy access to the foreground symbols being the major function.

A good example of this effect can be seen on this image, where the ‘Forsand Ferry’ boat appears to hover on the page. The secondary ‘Old Town’ structure although drawn with perspective should not dominate.

What I am trying to encourage through my work is for cartographers to diversify into other areas of mapmaking and design where substantial rewards are available. Some of the more traditional mapmaking fields are becoming less attractive and harder to find projects in. I know that it is not an easy task to drop specialist technical skills that have perhaps been acquired over several years, but sometimes one has to weight up the situation and maybe diversify into areas that are more lucrative.

Personally I have had a tremendous amount of success over the last five years with the type of artwork that I am now specializing in, with very little competition around. I still miss the technical systems, but the money is rolling in. I hope to encourage as many as possible to utilize their skills in other profitable areas of cartography.

Have a great summer!

Best wishes,Kevin Paul

Here is another example (the standard map has been rotated clockwise through 90°) of an annual event where the cartographer earns a yearly fee for updates and maintenance. If you can string a number of these together, the rewards are there for the taking: